Falling For the Enemy
by The.Beautiful.And.The.Damned
Summary: Sometimes you find love in the last place you expect. One Shot set after The Deathly Hallows. DMHG  One Shot


**A/N****: Set after the seventh book, Harry, Hermione, Draco and Ron have gone back to Hogwarts to repeat the year they lost. Don't hate me; you know you love the thought of them together… The first fic I've been able to actually put on the site, not that I haven't planned like 50 before now, but I've just figured out that one shots are my thing. You don't get bored so easily with them and nor do the readers. R&R but remember only constructive criticism is useful, otherwise – why offend?**

**Props to Jay for her excellent opinions. Mwa**

**Disclaimer: Sadly, so, so sadly, I do not own Harry Potter or anything to do with it.**

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I didn't mean it.

Ok, of course I meant it.

Otherwise Ron wouldn't hate me so much right now.

It's not like it's something we'd planned.

I mean, who plans on falling in love with their worst enemy, right?

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It was just the way he looked at me.

I'm one of those sympathetic people who end up being drawn into other people's problems, _needing_ to find a way to solve their difficulties for them... or at least to help them get through the rough waves that wash over their heads and pull them under.

I like to surf life like a wave, riding over the top of everything. And if I get dunked, I'm a good enough swimmer to rise to the surface again quickly.

But there are things you don't count on in life.

Like getting sick or failing a class or falling in love.

Falling in love.

It's still just too weird.

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'Hermione'

I stopped in my tracks.

Did my name, my _first name_ just issue from the mouth of the person I wanted to loath more than anyone in the entire world?

I didn't know what else to do. I was curious.

I turned around.

'Um...'

I was oblivious to his nervous state. Draco Malfoy was staring at his feet, wringing his hands like a child with chocolate all over their face, whose mother's just asked them where the chocolate chip cookies had gone.

Yes, I just compared Malfoy to a small, cute child. And that was only the beginning.

'I'm failing Transfiguration. I need someone to tutor me or I won't pass the seventh year. I don't want to repeat; for starters my parents would murder me. And I can't think of anyone else better than you so I was wondering if we could lay aside the old differences and just move on. I need your help. I'm admitting it. Can you please help me?'

At that point he looked at me.

After he'd complimented me and practically begged me in a way that I doubt he had ever done to anyone else in his life, perhaps with the exception of Voldemort, but as I am never even going to consider putting myself on the same level as Voldemort, I saw Draco Malfoy in a new light in that moment.

He had opened up to me.

I hadn't asked him to, and before then, I was certain that I hadn't wanted him to.

But I felt obligated when he looked at me.

He deserved something more in that moment, after I considered all that he had been through and how much he had changed, and how much he would have had to beat himself down to even say my name, let alone talk to me and then ask me for my help.

So I just blinked a few times and sort of went;

'Ah, sure.'

And after arranging a time and meeting place, we parted and went our separate ways.

I couldn't help but allow the corners of my mouth to turn up a little.

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He had made me smile.

After all that time, and all we had to be sorry for and all that we had all been through - Draco Malfoy had made me smile.

And it continued on that way for a while.

It got less and less awkward, and as he got better, we seemed to have more and more tutoring sessions that didn't end up being so much about Transfiguration.

I was seeing his side of the war. I could understand the terror that he had lived in and what he had gone through, and that it had not only been our side that had suffered.

And he held his head high and looked me in the eye while silent tears poured down his face and he described the night that Dumbledore had been murdered.

And I couldn't help it.

He had reached out and I had gone under for the first time in a long time, and I didn't have to be strong anymore, because just for a moment, we were allowed to be weak in each other's arms.

I tasted his tears as we embraced.

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It wasn't really a secret.

It was frowned upon by many, but looked at as a step forward by most.

We had fallen.

We were in love.

Because for the first time, the strong ones had fallen.

_For each other_.

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Like I said, I didn't mean to fall in love with him.

But I sure as hell meant it when I did.

You can't help who you fall in love with.

You don't look for love and expect to find it.

Because the truth of the matter is that you only ever find love in the last place you expect it.

But when you find true love, you know that you will never have to look for it again.

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**PLEASE R&R! Tell me if you like it and if you'd read any more of my stuff… and who knows, I may just post something else…**

Gabbi xx


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